Another option for those who bought and not ready to jump into another car payment. Fenix Power will start offering lease options in Fall 2019. If you are happy with your "new LEAF" range and plan to hold onto your car for at least a few more years, this might be something you will want to start tracking.

DaveinOlyWA wrote:Another option for those who bought and not ready to jump into another car payment. Fenix Power will start offering lease options in Fall 2019. If you are happy with your "new LEAF" range and plan to hold onto your car for at least a few more years, this might be something you will want to start tracking.

That does solve the problem of installing an expensive battery only to lose the investment in the event of a crash. Since you're paying a lease, the lease can simply end in that scenario. I do hope they can get the install price down and allow higher capacities by roll out time.

DaveinOlyWA wrote:Another option for those who bought and not ready to jump into another car payment. Fenix Power will start offering lease options in Fall 2019. If you are happy with your "new LEAF" range and plan to hold onto your car for at least a few more years, this might be something you will want to start tracking.

The cost proposition for this is pretty ridiculous. $1500 (installation) plus $99/month over the course of 5 years is roughly the cost of a new installed battery ($7,500). I think this sort of service is interesting, and I'm surprised Nissan doesn't already provide it. The cost, though, is almost comical. I would much rather purchase a new warrantied battery and live with the degradation over 5 years. If you need 100% of your range for the entire life of the car, it would be more cost effective to buy a car with active thermal management.

DaveinOlyWA wrote:Another option for those who bought and not ready to jump into another car payment. Fenix Power will start offering lease options in Fall 2019. If you are happy with your "new LEAF" range and plan to hold onto your car for at least a few more years, this might be something you will want to start tracking.

The cost proposition for this is pretty ridiculous. $1500 (installation) plus $99/month over the course of 5 years is roughly the cost of a new installed battery ($7,500). I think this sort of service is interesting, and I'm surprised Nissan doesn't already provide it. The cost, though, is almost comical. I would much rather purchase a new warrantied battery and live with the degradation over 5 years. If you need 100% of your range for the entire life of the car, it would be more cost effective to buy a car with active thermal management.

It would be ridiculous if you were leasing a Nissan pack. That I agree with.

Pretty early on on their business plan, but they do mention TMS and the possibility of higher capacity battery packs in future. They also mention "Tesla like" battery technology, so perhaps degradation would be minimal.

Could be interesting, if they offer a 40 kWh pack with TMS in a couple of years from now.

webb14leafs wrote:The cost proposition for this is pretty ridiculous. $1500 (installation) plus $99/month over the course of 5 years is roughly the cost of a new installed battery ($7,500). I think this sort of service is interesting, and I'm surprised Nissan doesn't already provide it. The cost, though, is almost comical. I would much rather purchase a new warrantied battery and live with the degradation over 5 years. If you need 100% of your range for the entire life of the car, it would be more cost effective to buy a car with active thermal management.

I don't know how you could expect much better from a brand new startup having to do a bunch of R&D. It should get better over time.

Well, I am putting out there because unlike the "next greatest battery" the timeline is rather short and TBH, the tech doesn't seem to be all that steep. I have often wondered why this had not happened much sooner and always wrote it off as the still high price of cells for all but major manufacturers.

But a single company who takes new packs, leases them until they no longer do as advertised then utilizing them in another segment of power storage just makes sense. So instead of realizing 100% of the cost of new cells, they are realizing 100% minus what they can get in the stationary power storage market.

I am really sorry to hear of this price increase. I have always assumed that, like computers, tech gets better, as the prices fall. I cannot believe that the same batteries (24KWH) have GONE UP I price, unless they were made in 1) low volume, and 2) are discontinuing manufacturing.

With price tags like this, an owner of a 24KWH car should be given the option of the higher volume, more current, higher capacity batteries. However, It seems that this may be a strategy to take the cars away from the owners, just like Apple has done to the Iphone. Old phone--- bad, new phone---- good...

A better business model, IMO, would be to charge $8500 for a 40KWH battery, and keep Nissan EV numbers high on the road. Old Leaf owners would have the benefit of improved performance. That would advertise their brand, and reduce he fear of current Gas drivers from trying EVs. When you see more of them, then you think "everybody is doin' it"

There are too few Leafs on the road as it is.... Nissan is cutting its throat if they promote used Leafs to be junked................ Where will brand loyalty and brand confidence be then???????

Very well said, powersurge! This is a right-to-repair issue, or something close to it; the notion that only a serial-number-blessed factory original battery that stores paisley electricity (none of that plaid electricity stuff!) can be fitted to a specific model LEAF is deplorable. A standards body should develop a specification of all the parameters concerned with battery pack operation, and work that into a standard interface for battery packs. We're already part way there with the charging standards; you don't (well, you shouldn't) have any problems connecting a CHAdeMO charging station to the battery of any Tesla, a LEAF, an iMiev (sp?), or a Soul, no matter the model year. And if a battery pack communicates its characteristics in sufficient detail, it should be possible for any vehicle to either make use of whatever potential that battery has, or (as in the case, for example, of a battery with inappropriate voltage) politely explain the incompatibility to the installer. If the LEAF had taken such a modular approach to its battery, it would be possible for an aftermarket future supplier to offer a lighter, solid-state 30kWh battery pack with proper thermal management that could be plugged into an older car.

There'd be no benefit to the vehicle manufacturer for meeting such a standard, of course, unless some large volume customer like the US postal service came along and said "we'll order 50K EV delivery carriers from you if they support the SAEnum-de-num-point-num battery interface".